The Cascadia Cup: A Possible New Direction?

Yesterday’s announcement that the Vancouver Whitecaps, Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders would be taking part in a pre-season friendly tournament in March turned our thoughts onto the Cascadia Cup.

We mentioned yesterday that whilst we’re looking forward to the three game series at Starfire Sports Complex in Washington, we would prefer it if it doesn’t become a regular pre-season fixture for the Whitecaps. I’d much rather that we played games against Victoria, Edmonton, SFU, UBC and the likes and keep the games against our fierce Cascadia rivals special and for the regular season and playoffs.

Less is more.

I’m going to throw an idea out there though and it’s one that could possibly change my mind about such pre-season fixtures becoming a regular occurance.

In many places, Cup competitions are gathering less importance. In both Scotland and England, the bigger sides couldn’t seem to care less about the League Cup. As an East Fife fan, whose Club are three time League Cup winners, this saddens me. Even the once magical FA Cup has seen a lot of sides field understrength teams in this year’s competition.

With the League being deemed more important, the Cups have suffered and this has led to the fans being jaded about Cup competitions. There’s still nothing like a midweek Cup tie to get my juices going though.

We’re lucky in Canada because the Voyaguers Cup/Canadian Championship games have been well received by the fans here and treated with importance and respect by Vancouver and Toronto players, management and supporters. Montreal were, are and always will be just scum to me. In our USL/NASL days these games meant more to me than a monotonous League campaign.

The US has their US Open Cup. I really don’t know how well it’s received down there but a lot of teams field weakened sides in the early stages. I love it as a competition though. It’s the closest thing we’re likely to have to the FA Cup in North America and a set up I’d love to see in Canada some day.

In the Republic of Cascadia though, we have our own important Cup – The Cascadia Cup.

For the uninitiated, and that’s going to include most of the new MLS Caps, Timbers and Sounders fans, the Cascadia Cup was established in 2004 by the supporters groups of the three Cascadia Clubs (the Vancouver Southsiders, Timbers Army and ECS).

The trophy is awarded each season to the team in the Pacific Northwest with the best regular season record against their bitter rivals. Vancouver Whitecaps have won it three times and the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders both twice.

With the competition the last two years being reduced to just the two sides, it’s going to be nice to have it back to the full quota once again. We should also remind everyone that the last time the three teams competed for it, 2008, the Caps kicked everyone’s butts.

The supporters groups and the fans in general have enjoyed the Cascadia Cup games over the years. It shouldn’t be hard to get the new MLS support on board with the rivalries and excitement that the games bring but it’s not just up to the fans to promote the Cascadia Cup. All three Clubs need to do their part.

What AFTN would like to see is a big focus from all three on the six matches this season. Build it up in the media and matchday programmes and have “Cascadia Cup” printed on the tickets for those particular games. Promote the hell out of it and the rewards will be immense.

There was a lot of talk on the Southsiders forum last year about what we as Whitecaps fans should do about the Heritage Cup. It was pretty unanimous.

The Heritage Cup was established by fans in 2009 for teams that carry on the name of their city’s NASL predecessors. That’s meant Seattle and San Jose have been competing, with Vancouver and Portland now eligible to take part. Except we don’t want to and I believe that the Southsiders board have told the organiser to get tae fuck. Hopefully the ECS and Timbers Army will/have done the same.

It’s pointless when it just adds one more team into the mix of the Cascadia Cup. The San Jose guys would be much better turning it into a California Cup for the three teams there. We have our heritage in the Pacific Northwest and it doesn’t include San Jose v.3.

With regular season matches, Voyageurs Cup, US Open Cup games, Concacaf Champions League, the All Star game and international matches all competing for time and attention in a busy MLS season, it could be easy for something like the Cascadia Cup to get second billing.

I don’t think the fans would let it but as I mentioned long time ago in this blog post, the pre-season friendly tournament announcement got me thinking about the Cup.

In Fife we have the Fife Cup. It’s competed for each season by the four League sides from the Kingdom and a non-league side. It’s pretty much a non event now and more a nuisance trying to fit the extra games in for some clubs. In the 1980’s the Fife FA came up with an excellent pre-season tournament for the Fife Cup. Played over a weekend, with the hosts rotating, there were two semis and a final. The fans loved it, the players loved it, it attracted big crowds (more than regular friendlies got) and it gave the tournament some importance again.

For reasons fully unknown to most, this successful idea was scrapped after three seasons.

Could such a pre-season tournament be used for the Cascadia Cup? There are advantages and disadvantages of making such a move.

Would it make it seem less important if it wasn’t League games that counted towards it?

Playing it pre-season would see the teams playing a whole variety of players and quality. Some could potentially use the matches solely as trial games, but we could limit the number of substitutions used. None of the teams would be warmed up but you could argue that if the MLS gave us early fixtures against our PNW rivals, that would be the same.

On the other hand, would it have added glamour because it was a standalone tournament? A proper international Cup tournament and we could rotate the hosting at the three Clubs.

It’s probably not an idea that wouldn’t go down too well with a lot of the fans but it’s certainly better than Don Garber’s horrendous “rivalry week” idea (more about our thoughts on that in a future blog).

It probably should stay with regular season games, but who knows what lies ahead in the MLS. If nothing else, it would add a bit of competitive and meaningful spark to pre-season. I’d certainly enjoy it and look forward to the pre-season more.

Whatever it’s future, the Cascadia Cup is important and here to stay and I think this year we could see the most fiercely competitive matches for it yet.

Cascadia Hostilities Set For Early Battles

Fans of the three Cascadian rivals are going to get an early taster for the much anticpated forthcoming MLS action.

The rumours have been doing the rounds for the past few days but now it’s official. Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers will play a three team series of pre-season friendlies in March at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Washington.

The games are scheduled to take place between March 4th and 6th, with a supporters summit, coaches forum and a residency game being thrown in for good measure. Seattle and Portland will kick off proceedings on the Friday night, before the Whitecaps get into action with a game against the Timbers at 5pm on the Saturday.

An under 18 residency game between Vancouver and Seattle starts the ball rolling at noon on the Sunday before the weekend’s activities are wrapped up with a game between the senior teams at 3pm.

Tickets for each match will cost US$10 and will go on sale from February 1st.

In a sign of things to come, Vancouver and Portland fans are already facing ticketing restrictions. Both Whitecaps and Timbers fans will receive an allocation of 500 for the games against Seattle, with both sets of supporters receiving 1300 seats for their match up on the Saturday, whilst Seattle fans are bizarrely being allocated 500 tickets for that game (obviously keen to see what kind of game real football teams and supporters can put on).

If we’re being totally honest, these allocations will be more than enough from a Vancouver point of view. I’ll be surprised if we bring more than 100 fans down for the weekend. Maybe we’ll take our whole allocation in future seasons, once all the MLS crowd are fully on board, but not now.

For Caps fans, the games will most probably will give us our first chance to see our new guys in action and how they’re gelling as a team. We may even have a striker to watch if we’re really lucky. It also gives us the chance to hone some new chants and introduce the newbies to the already established ones.

It’s great to have the games. We were never likely to have games in Vancouver as the Caps will be wanting to keep the hype building for the MLS opener at Empire Field against Toronto FC on March 19th.

I’m looking forward to the weekend, but at the same time, I hope it doesn’t take a little shine of the anticipation and trips during the regular season. We don’t want to have too many meaningless games against who are really our two biggest rivals. Keep these encounters ultra special.

From the Clubs point of view, it will be a great opportunity for the head honchos and front office staff of all three to get together and sort out logistics for the season, especially around travelling support, so we don’t have a bunch of clueless muppets directing proceedings on gameday and possibly creating trouble when there was none in the first place.

For the supporters, it will be a great chance to renew rivalries and friendships, but most importantly this is a huge opportunity for all three sets of fans to show that we can co-exist in a stadium together without there being widespread violence and problems galore.

To show that we can have hostilities and venomous verbal battles in the stadium for the 90 minutes of the game but then share a few incident-free beers and chew the fat after it. No love-fests from now on though please.

We know we can, we just have to prove it to the ever so jumpy front offices. Apparently shared barbecues and pub nights don’t get taken into the equation.

The slightest hint of trouble and our aims to get better ticketing allocations and everything that goes with it will be severely set back.

For the Southsiders and other long time Vancouver Whitecaps fans, the games at Starfire will be a blast from the past as we revisit the home of the old USL Seattle Sounders. I wonder how many of the current Sounders fans went to see them play there and how many of them will be making their first visit like myself.

I was never lucky enough to make it down to a Sounders-Whitecaps USL match there, but the stories from the guys are stuff of legend and it’s going to be a fantastic weekend and one not to be missed, plus another ground chalked up on my worldwide travels.

Starfire will be my 6th stadium I’ve seen games at now in the States, following the Pontiac Silverdome (1994 World Cup), Pasadena Rosebowl (for early MLS LA Galaxy), Seattle’s Qwest Field and Merlo Field and Piggy Park in Portland. Quite looking forward to it and a good taster for AFTN’s away travels in the months ahead.

Regular readers of my blogs will know that the thing I miss most from not watching my beloved East Fife in Scotland, is the fact that I can’t follow the Whitecaps week in, week out, home and away. Awaydays make football.

If you’re thinking of heading down to the games, then the Southsiders are planning on running a bus or two, based on demand. If you want to know more details then check it out and register your interest HERE.

You’d be mad not to head down if you can!

Mon the Caps.

Whitecaps First Kick Opponents Finally Confirmed

After weeks of speculation, Vancouver Whitecaps found out their first ever MLS opponents today – Toronto FC.

Early rumours had hinted at New York Red Bulls providing the Caps First Kick but these were soon dispelled, with Canada’s perennial failures TFC becoming the favourites for this role in recent days and so it proved to be.

It’s not what I would have chosen to be honest to kick off our MLS era. If you asked the fans, the games they’re most looking forward to are Seattle, Portland and Toronto. To have one of these “glamour” games right at the start of the season, with both teams still trying to find their feet isn’t ideal and won’t give us as cracking a game as we could get a few months into the campaign.

Still, I guess it will give us the chance to show the Canadian public who the real deal is in Canadian football from an early stage.

As a non Canadian, I really don’t give much of a flying fuck about TFC or Toronto when it comes to fooball. I also don’t have a big chip on my shoulder about Toronto and the attitude of it’s population.

Toronto FC are an irrelevance to me in anything except the Canadian Championship. Then they’re our rivals. In MLS, Portland and Seattle take that role. It’s easier to build a rivalry when fans can just hop into their car and travel to away games with ease and not have to fly to the other side of the country to do that.

I also have more interest and concerns about teams that are likely to be our playoff challengers. Toronto FC don’t fall into that category.

The game is scheduled to be played at Empire Field on Saturday March 19th with a kick-off time to still be determined.

Our home opener, and first ever MLS match, was always going to be a big occasion no matter who the opponents were. Let’s just hope that the Caps front office don’t fuck things up like I feel they have done with so many other things so far. Kick off time for this is very important.

In recent seasons, when the Toronto Mapleleafs come to town to play the Vancouver Canucks in men’s ice skating, the Canucks face-off time is brought forward from the usual 7pm or 7.30pm to 4pm to please those watching out east and CBC television. It’s total bullshit and shame on the Canucks for doing this.

We can only hope that the Whitecaps aren’t as easily swayed by the TV companies and lure of pleasing Toronto people.

A 4pm kick off is likely. One ticket rep told me earlier this year, when I queried why they were having so many early kick off times, that “the Vancouver public won’t come out and watch in the cold evenings”. Seriously?

Evening kick offs and night matches are one of the things that mkae football atmospheres.

It could be worse of course, we could still be dumped with a 1pm kick off to avoid the hockey starting at 4pm. If the Caps agree to this, the little respect that I still have for the front office would have all but disappeared.

So can we rely on the Caps not to fuck this up? I wouldn’t be putting money on that. Hopefully we can get a decision soon.

One Down, One To Go As Portland Timbers Prepare To Unveil Their New Club Crest

Yesterday we had a look at the new Vancouver Whitecaps club crest for when they become a Major League Soccer club in 2011.

The other expansion side next year is Portland Timbers and they are also launching their new crest this week, on Friday.

The Club have launched a really classy teaser campaign in the lead up to the big announcement, via a series of videos, so for your enjoyment, we include them here:

Teaser One

Teaser Two

Teaser Three

Teaser Four

So will the hype be worth the wait? We’ll find out on Friday but it’s nice to see that these two clubs realise the importance that a new crest is to their worldwide identity.

There’s been talk on the AFTN forum that East Fife should re-look at their crest. Maybe we should start uo those discussions again.

Claude Watch: New Club, New Crisis

Now we don’t like to kick a man when he’s down, but in Claude Anelka’s case we’ll make an exception.

A few weeks ago we reported on Claude the Fraud’s inglorious return to football with AC St Louis in North America’s NASL. Well it hasn’t got much better for poor Claude.

St Louis’ league campaign is now seven games old and the team find themselves with a record of one win, one draw and five defeats. They’re sitting on 4 points and are bottom of both the NASL Conference and USSF-D2 single table standings. Hmm, this all seems a little bit familiar!

Now we will be fair for a second. St Louis just recorded a 1-1 draw last Saturday in a very tough place to visit, Portland Timbers PGE Park. They also recorded the team’s first ever win on May 1st when they beat the equally poor Crystal Palace Baltimore 1-0, thanks to a goal in 52 seconds from Manuel Kante, the player that caused Claude to start the game mentioned in the post above with just ten men!

We were saddened by this victory of course as it was also Claude’s first ever victory as a senior football manager. We hoped he’d just have plodded along without ever winning, like his spell at the Rovers. If Baltimore hadn’t been caught so cold, he’d still be awaiting that first win. Damn them!

In this time St Louis have seen their attendance fall from 5,695 in their home opener to just 2,985 for their second home game against Baltimore. With another home game, against Tampa Bay, tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how much more it has fallen. The Club can’t afford for this to be the case.

Now to give you some background, St Louis used to be a hotbed in US football. We kept being told that it was a “great soccer city”. The current AC St Louis side is the city’s first outdoor professional men’s side for 30 years. They had the Stars for ten years in the old NASL. Hopes were high for the franchise and they had even been bidding for MLS membership before settling on the NASL. There has been talk of building a brand new, state of the art 18,500 seated new stadium if they were to get a MLS franchise.

The Club were expected to be a huge success story. The future for the growth of football clubs in the States. Now they appear to be in a very perilous position with reports coming out that they may not have enough money to see out the season and they may have to fold. Other reports suggest they will see out the season but then fold, possibly with the help of a buyout from league management.

For more details and background surrounding these problems, check out these excellent articles at Inside Minnesota Soccer and St Louis Globe-Democrat.

It’s a shame for the true football fans in the city who have desperately been waiting for a team to return. They deserve much better but clearly there hasn’t been as many of those as expected to keep the team as a viable proposition. Some are already commenting that they should have known that the writing was on the wall from the start when a man with no pedigree like Claude Anelka was appointed manager!

Claude’s position is also now rumoured to be under review and he could be set to leave the club, having failed once again to show that he has what it takes to be a football manager. I do feel for the St Louis fans though through all this. They didn’t deserve to start of their team with a man like this at the helm and if the Club does go to the wall it’s a huge blow for growing the game in the States.

We asked last time, why would someone give him another chance to fail? I’m sure the St Louis fans will soon be asking this in numbers. Of all the football managers currently looking for work around the world, why would someone give this clown a job? That’s what the St Louis fans need to be asking now.

Interesting resume Claude now has. 2004 nearly helped to ruin Raith Rovers Football Club. 2010, different country, different town, new club in crisis.

I know that St Louis’ current problems lie way deeper than Claude Anelka but it’s the manager at the helm that is ultimately responsible for bringing the crowds in through performances on the pitch. St Louis badly need to get the crowds in at the moment if they are to save their future as a club and Claude’s team don’t seem capable of giving the winning performances on the pitch that are needed.

Claude Anelka’s Magic Wand. Everything it touches turns to shit.

Caps Firing Blanks As Weaknesses Become Evident

When it comes to boring football matches, watching a meaningless midweek League match in the Scottish Third Division on a freezing cold wintry night between two uninterested teams takes some beating. Or so I thought.

It was nice of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Crystal Palace Baltimore sides to serve me up a slice of home, but it was ok lads, I wasn’t homesick. I just wanted to watch a decent game of football. You know. One with shots, saves, action, everything that wasn’t on display at Swangard Stadium last night.

When a winless expansion team comes a calling to their soon to be MLS hosts and it’s hard to work out which team is which, then that’s when you know that things are starting to go wrong.

I don’t think it was being presumptuous to expect the Whitecaps to beat a struggling team with a record of played 3, lost 3, score 1, conceded 5. To do that though you need to have more than one shot on target.

Yes, that was the Caps sum total of saves forced in last night’s encounter. One. Eleven shots, one on target.

The match report on the offical Whitecaps website said of the game that the Caps “struggled to find a way past Palace goalkeeper Evan Bush”. Actually shooting at him might have been a start and not from fifty yards out!

It was a dire goalless draw that was played out, devoid of any entertainment on the pitch that just led to us making our own off it. The result bizarrely leaves the Caps sitting top of the NASL Conference in USSF D2, with a grand total of four league goals in five games.

I think we know where the problems lie.

Teitur’s tactics are a bit of a mystery to me. I’m not really sure what shape and style we’re trying to go with yet. I’m not sure the players are either.

The defence is, on the whole, pretty shored up. We have a serious lack of firepower up front though. I love Randy as a player but he’s not a MLS starter yet. He’s not even a NASL starter really. He was pushed around a lot last night. Our midfield is crying out for some creativity. It’s had for the frontmen when they’re not being supplied with anything decent to work with in the first place.

When you think that our players this season should be playing for a MLS future, the way things are shaping up so far, we’re going to be relying heavily on the draft next year. There are very few players who are stepping up and making a claim.

I know it’s early days and we didn’t start last season too hot either, but you just can’t see where the goals are going to come from at present, which is a major worry, especially with Toronto coming up in a crunch Voyageurs Cup game.

Some may say that this season is just for experimentation and is a nothing season. The hardcore fans won’t agree. We should be trying to win every competition that we enter. Bob Lenarduzzi said as much as the MLS one year kick off event.

With Montreal back in town on League business next Saturday, we have to try and make some changes and soon. The dross on display today was unacceptable. Good players (like Johnny Steele) don’t become awful players over night, so we need to get to the roots of all these problems.

For me, the constant chopping and changing of the squad doesn’t help. Every year is a rebuilding exercise and the players will take time to bond and fully function as a unit. That might explain why they struggle to string together passes to each other.

I can take drawing or losing matches if we have some oomph about us. Made a real go of it.

On our displays so far this season, we’re missing the impact players and that’s something that Teitur has to address asap.

Vancouver Whitecaps v Crystal Palace Baltimore Extended Highlights

Hope the Club don’t mind but I’ve decided to put up some re-enacted action from tonight’s game for everyone:

Caps Fall To First Defeat Of Season

First off, apologies for this blog appearing later than planned and also the lack of activity the last couple of days. Been enjoying myself down in Oregon, well apart from the result of the game on Thursday night that is.

The Caps lost out 2-1 to the Portland Timbers on Thursday down at PGE Park in Portland, their first defeat of the season. The ever dangerous Ryan Pore did the damage with a brace and his match winner, four minutes from time, was a killer blow for the Caps after a gutsy performance where they fought back from going down to an early goal to dominate proceedings at times.

Losing the deciding goal after Portland had gone down to ten men was particularly galling. I personally thought the dismissal of Mamadou Danso was harsh on 85 minutes, but with the way the ref was brandishing the yellow card about all night, it had been on the cards from early on.

There’s not much point in doing a match recap as it feels so long ago already but here’s some general thoughts from the game.

– My Caps Man of the Match was Nelson Akwari. His goal aside, he was outstanding for most of the match at the back and was a commanding presence in both boxes.

– Jay Nolly had a jittery first half I felt. He was his usual composed self. I don’t know if this was down to the pitch or him just having an off day, but he made up for it with some fine stops in the second half.

– Marcus Haber did well at holding the ball up but he’s still not what I want from our main striker. I want him in the the box getting on the end of crosses, not the other way around. I still feel he doesn’t use his height to our advantage but that said, he had a good game and caused threats, but we badly need a prolific striker to finish our chances.

– It was disappointing that this game was on a Thursday night. I only found two other Caps fans who had made the journey, so a big hello to Keith and Leah. Hope you have a great weekend down there.

– It was a great game of football. Easily the best USL/NASL match I’ve seen this season. I was surprised how well we played as I didn’t expect much coming in to the match. We did well and matched Portland in all areas, bar taking more chances. You couldn’t help but watch the game though and wonder how many players on display would be making the step up. One Portland fan, who admitted to being very conservative with his picks, felt maybe 4, maybe 6 of the current Timbers squad would be making the MLS leap with the team.

– Once again, hats off to all of the Portland fans I spoke to who made me feel very much welcome at the stadium. As always, a classy bunch down there and I look forward to many more visits in the “big leagues”.

Sadly I’ll miss the July 3rd visit down there due to work commitments I just can’t get out of, but hopefully there will be a playoff visit to follow. It’s a great stadium to visit, a fine set up and as always, an enjoyable matchday atmosphere. Just a pity that the basketball took prize billing on the night of the game, but more on that next time.

Caps Remain Unbeaten But Still A Work In Progress

Vancouver Whitecaps ran out 1-0 winners against AC St Louis this afternoon to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

The first ever meeting between the two sides was far from being an entertaining encounter but the most pleasing aspect was that the Caps kept their third clean sheet in a row.

The Caps starting line up saw enforced changes and by the time the game ended the Caps are going to be testing their squad depth quite early in the season.

The difference between Vancouver and a very poor St Louis side was a 19th minute Mouloud Akloul strike. The French Algerian defender couldn’t enjoy the moment of his first goal for his new club though, breaking his ankle in his fall as he put the ball in the net.

Despite the Caps outshooting St Louis 11 to 1, there was very little dangerous goalmouth action from the home side, with Jay Nolly virtually a bystander at the other end.

Greg Janicki had the best chance to add to the advantage on 31 minutes but his header from a Wes Knight throw crashed off the bar.

There wasn’t a lot more to take from the game than the three points. We’re certainly looking more solid at the back, but I just don’t see where our goals are going to come from when we come up against a team that may actually be able to score one in return.

With Portland away the next stop on Thursday, we’ll face our toughest test of the season so far. These are the games when we get to see who are our key guys and hopefully see them step up.

With possible MLS contracts on the horizon for both teams’ players, it should be an interesting encounter.

Not Much Magic In The City Of Miami

I had such high hopes of the NASL when it was first announced. It was a chance for the Clubs to take control and run the League the proper way a League should be run.

Now obviously it’s still early days. All of the legal wrangling, and the delay in even having any details of a season to begin with, hasn’t set the League off on the first steps it would have liked. The League owners hands are obviously tied in a number of areas and are still shackled by their forced association with the USL.

It would be harsh to be too judgemental at this stage but things haven’t got off to a great start so far. Crowds have been very low and you do have to wonder how the League can possibly survive once ourselves, Portland, Montreal and all our fans leave for the MLS over the next wee while.

I felt that our home opener last week drew a disappointing crowd of just 4,934 in the grand scheme of things. It seems great though when you look at the 1,235 Miami drew for theirs last weekend and the 1,694 and 1,029 Carolina and Baltimore attracted respectively to their home openers on Friday night.

At least St Louis drew a sold out 5,695 fans to the first professional men’s football match in the city in 33 years. There’s hope there if Claude Anelka doesn’t fuck things up too much (more on that later in the week in the lead up to our game against them next Saturday).

We’d love to the see the League thrive and grow to become a real alternative to the MLS in North America. To do that they need quality franchises. Miami certainly don’t seem to meet that criteria if yesterday was anything to go by.

We covered the shambolic match webcast in yesterday’s blog. We don’t know if we can point the finger of blame at Miami for that, we think not as the other feeds yesterday were also atrocious with regards to the buffering aspect. The other unprofessionalism on display was certainly the work of the Miami franchise.

Making PA advertising announcements during action on the field is just plain tacky. To blast out music whilst the game takes place is just downright wrong. They had the Rocky theme blaring out during one Miami attack yesterday FFS.

I thought there would be some rule against this but turns out there isn’t. There really needs to be if Leagues here want to avoid a mickey mouse tag. Once the NASL have sole control of their affairs, that’ll hopefully be one of the new rules they’ll introduce for the sake of the professionalism in the League.

Sure it’s not Miami’s fault they have to play in vast stadiums devoid of any atmosphere and fans, but you then have to ask, does a franchise with such a low fan base actually deserve to be in the second tier of the game in North America?

You do have to feel sorry for the hardcore Miami fans. At least they try. They’re enthusiastic, try and make noise throughout and it’s not their fault that the rest of the city don’t appear to give a fuck about the team.

I hate to knock anyone that is trying to generate an atmosphere at a game, but come on guys, your Miami sound machine calypso wing is more grating than atmosphere inducing after a while. I really felt we had been conned and were in fact “watching” a subliminal advertising campaign to make us go and see Stomp.

I did find it hilarious though that they were chanting “this is our house”. Not something I’d be fucking bragging about! Never heard anyone proud to say “we love this shithole” before.

Still, good marks for effort lads. It can’t be easy for you there.

There was an advertising board at the game in Spanish that said “America’s team”. Looking at the crowd they had at yesterday’s match, someone seems to have forgotten to tell America that fact.